


kiss kiss fall in love

by m3llo_hi



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Banter, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Flirting, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, mini stories build up to one giant one, sorry it's super long, switch perspectives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24767428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3llo_hi/pseuds/m3llo_hi
Summary: Jay just wants to know if Cole likes him back. So he spends several days by him to drop and pick up some clues. Small little short stories in one big giant one! Bruiseshipping.
Relationships: Bruiseshipping - Relationship, Cole/Jay Walker, Geodeshipping - Relationship
Comments: 10
Kudos: 98





	kiss kiss fall in love

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is really long! I did not intend it to be, but they are little short stories all rolled up into one giant one. So enjoy!!

**Stars**

The Master of Earth laid sprawled across on the roof of the Monastery, gazing up at the stars that painted the sky. It was common for him to come out here every night with his sketchbook and a small lantern, and sit beneath the stars.

It was quiet, calm, and relaxing. Very much unlike being cooped up inside the Monastery.

Up here, he could let go of any negative thoughts he was harbouring. Up here, it felt like time was nonexistent. In fact, sometimes he would fall asleep on the roof and sneak back down early in the morning to not raise any suspicion.

It was the only hiding spot that no one on the team knew about. And he planned to keep it that way. Except maybe for Pixal. She had caught him sneaking out in the middle of the night once and venturing to his little spot up on the roof. But Cole knew he could count on her to keep it a secret.

At last, Cole tucked his hands beneath his head and closed his eyes, a small smile on his face.

That was until-

"Psst."

Cole jolted into a sitting position, eyes darting from side to side. He squinted in the half lighted sky thanks to his lantern, searching for the source of the voice. To Cole's knowledge, the voice sounded a lot like Jay. Yet, Jay didn't know about his spot on the roof. And the last time he checked, Jay was fast asleep in his bed, just as the others were.

"Hey!" Cole's head whipped to the right where yep, the Master of Lightning's head was somewhat poking out from beneath as one arm was waving high in the air. "I know I talk a lot but ya can't just leave me hanging, you bozo."

The earth ninja blinked a couple of times, hoping that the sleep was just getting to him and Jay being here was just all in his head. Of course, he wasn't shocked when it turned out that every bit of this was real. So he crawled over to the edge to help his friend onto the top.

"So, care to tell me what you're doing up here?" Jay asked as he dusted off his pajamas, putting his pillow down behind him.

"I was just about to ask you the same," Cole stated plainly.

Jay wrinkled his brows. "I think I deserve an explanation first. Don't you think?"

"I thought you were asleep?" Cole joked, tucking his sketchbook under his legs so that Jay wouldn't notice.

The boy in blue punched him gently in the shoulder, smiling so that his teeth were visible. "Very funny. I woke up and went to your room to look for you but you weren't there. Come on. Seriously, what are you doing up here?"

Cole shrugged, chin up as his eyes traced the stars. He wanted to ask what or why Jay had woken up, and what prompted him to go to _his_ room… but he decided to save that for another time.

"I dunno… I go up here a lot to look at the stars. They're pretty."

Jay looked up at the sky, holding his eyes there on that spot before turning his head back to look at Cole.

The light from the lantern was soft as it illuminated the earth ninja in the thick darkness. His legs were up, knees hugged against his chest while his arms wrapped around them tightly. And his hair, it was so long that Cole had tucked some of it behind his ear.

Unknowingly, Jay reached up to touch his own hair, bedhead and messy. Curly and tangled.

It hadn't occurred to Jay that his best friend was still dressed head to toe in his ninja gi until he realized that Cole was sitting sleeveless under the stars. How the master of earth could never seem to freeze to death remained a mystery to him.

Nonetheless, Cole looked visibly calm and at ease.

The gentle smile on his face.

The half-lidded eyes gazing upwards towards the sky.

It was a sight to behold.

Jay sighed softly. "Yeah… He is."

"What was that?"

Cole's voice snapped Jay out of his trance when he realized he had been staring at Cole longingly without a word.

It was then Jay realized where he had slipped up. His cheeks flushed and he cleared his throat, covering his mouth with his hand as he looked away. "Uh. I, uh. I mean _they_ are! Yeah! The _stars_ are really pretty! Ha ha."

One more loud cough for the sake of it.

"So, uh, how often do you come up here?" Jay spoke fast, hoping that he could quickly change the subject and steer Cole away from what happened earlier.

The earth ninja leaned back on his hands, staring at his feet. "Two… three times a week. I don't know. Whenever I feel like it." He tilted his head in Jay's direction. "How did you know I was up here?"

At that, Jay shrugged hopelessly, a scoff escaping him. "Just a wild guess. I guess."

Cole's lips thinned and he nodded. " _Mhmm_."

Sure, he'd take that as an answer, just to entertain Jay for a bit. But he knew that "wild guess" was far from the truth.

* * *

**Cake**

The next day, Cole left the Monastery in the morning to tackle the groceries, while Jay and Zane visited the bakery to pick up an order for the mayor.

The list Nya had given him was exceptionally long, so Cole forcefully dragged Kai into grocery shopping with him in any effort to get done quicker. Which he was ultimately proven wrong by when Kai accidentally set aflame bags of unpopped popcorn, causing the theater snacks to jump off the shelves from every angle.

It took them over an hour to get back home. After cleaning up the mess and paying for all the popcorn Kai had popped, Cole was ready to call it a day.

He fell into an empty chair at the dining table, letting his head fall forward until it hit the table with a thud. Painful or not, Cole could care less. At this point, all he wanted was to sit out the rest of the day.

Then a gentle poke on top of his head grabbed his attention.

Cole looked up and glared at Jay through the clumps of hair over his eyes.

The blue clad was sitting on the table with the cheekiest grin on his face as he smiled down upon Cole.

Cole sighed, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "Here to mock me about how Kai made a mess of things with the popcorn? Or are you just jealous that you couldn't get to be there to watch it happen?"

Jay shook his head and waved a hand, rolling his eyes. "Pft. No. But I do wish I was there to see it. That's gotta be, like, the next best thing since I beat your high score at _Lava Zombies_."

Instead, Jay pulled out a box from behind him, pushing it closer to Cole. "Anyways, I thought you oughta know that I got you your favorite cake from the bakery."

He held a fork out in front of Cole's face, urging him to open it.

"I know you like the one with the vanilla frosting," Jay noted when Cole opened the box, his mouth watering at the mere sight of cake.

Cole looked back up at Jay, opening his mouth to speak, even though frankly, he had no idea what he was going to say to begin with. He looked back at the cake.

He only ever ate his favorite cake on special occasions. Which was as rare as Kai folding his portion of the laundry. How could his best friend _possibly_ know what his favorite cake was?

The small dollops of icing on around the edge of the chocolate layered base.

The vanilla frosting. _Not_ the chocolate one.

And the cherries? While it normally came with a small circle of cherries, Jay had requested them removed. The same way Cole always had it.

He tried not to think too hard about it. Maybe it was just another one of his "wild guesses". Who really knew? Nonetheless, the cake was tempting enough just _sitting_ there.

"Well," Jay began, swinging his feet off the table. "I promised Zane earlier that I'd help him fix something in his circuit board. I don't know, something about the wires getting mixed up?"

He waved it off and started for the doors. He slid them open, turning to look at Cole over his shoulder one last time.

"Hey, Cole,"

A smile flickered across Cole's face and he snapped his head up at the lightning ninja, his gaze softening. "Yeah?"

"Enjoy the cake."

* * *

**Dummy**

Cole swung his fist at a training dummy and within seconds it had already hit the wall, bursting from the seams on its chest as the foam escaped. His lava arms faded and he grimaced, moving from the training course to the edges of the Monastery where a roll of wrist tape and a single water bottle sat.

He collapsed onto the floor, sitting on the steps as he unravelled the worn out tape around his hands, discarding it to the side.

He'd been out here for almost an hour, waiting for Kai to show up like he'd promised.

Yet, all that waiting already took the most out of him when he started to train by himself since he had nothing better to do while he waited. His water was already three-fourths _gone_. His fingers already sore from all the excessive punching and swinging his hammer.

As Cole was chugging down the last of his water, the doors opened and he instantly shot to his feet.

"Kai! Dude, what took you so long? I've been waiting for-" He stopped dead in the middle of his sentence when he spotted Jay trotting down the steps with a towel around his neck. Once again, Cole was rendered speechless. He closed his mouth, searching for the right words to say. But all that came out was a meer, "Uh-" which caused Jay to giggle.

Cole's eyes followed Jay as he set his things down next to Cole's. "Kai went to go surveillance on some criminal activity in Ninjago City. He told me to tell you that he's sorry he couldn't make it."

"But I've been waiting for nearly an hour-"

"-Yeah, and Kai's been out on patrol for almost two."

The Master of Earth gaped. "What?"

Though Cole couldn't see it, Jay was grinning, ear to ear. Most of what he told Cole was true.

For the most part, Kai _was_ out on patrol. Or "patrol".

He did have to spot some suspicious criminal activity down by the bank, but it didn't take that long. It was initially supposed to be Jay who had gone down to sweep the area. But the blue ninja practically begged Kai to get out of it and take his spot training with Cole instead.

"So, we ready to train?" Jay asked.

"I dunno, I mean… I've kinda been waiting forever, my hands are tired," Cole drawled, mockingly teasing Jay.

The blue ninja rolled his eyes, not buying any of Cole's excuses.

"Oh, come on, you're stronger than that, boulder brain."

Cole wrinkled his nose, watching as Jay picked up the dummy Cole had hit earlier to set it up. Instead, Jay picked up the fallen foam, turning to Cole as he raised his eyebrow. "What the heck did you _do_ to this? This is unusable!"

Cole leaned against the pole, folding his arms across his chest defiantly.

"I was getting tired of waiting. I may or may not have punched it… really hard." Cole pursed his lips. "With my lava arms."

Jay scoffed. "Cole! Master Wu told us _not_ to break the dummies!"

A wicked smile flashed across Cole's face and he snorted. "Well, you're a dummy and I'm _pretty_ sure we've broken you _plenty_ of times."

Jay's head snapped up. "Oh. Ha ha. That's very funny. Wow, I'm laughing."

Shaking his head, Cole went to snatch the dummy from Jay, tossing it to the side. Very casually, he slipped into a fighting stance, nodding his head in Jay's direction.

The need for a dummy was past them now. Besides, who needed one when you had a sparring partner? More or less, _Jay_.

Fortunately for Cole, Jay caught onto this very quickly and readied his fists with a smirk, charging up his lightning.

"So," Cole mimicked Jay from earlier, "we ready to train?"

* * *

**Warehouse**

_Jay, my scanners are indicating that you appear to be nervous about something._

Currently, Jay was waiting in an abandoned alleyway just outside of a giant warehouse. Reports of suspicious activity had required two of the ninja to come down and check it out.

Of course, being the selfless, always-put-himself-first, even if it meant in the face of danger, kind of guy, Cole snuck into the warehouse first while Jay kept a lookout. At first, Jay had no problem with sticking around outside.

Until thirty minutes flew by and Cole hadn't come back out yet. Worse, Jay couldn't get a hold of him no matter how many times he tried to contact him through the earpiece. _Worse_ , Zane couldn't find Cole's heat signature on the scanners.

"One more shot," Jay muttered under his breath, choosing to ignore Zane. He held a finger up to his ear and held down on the button. "Cole?" He swallowed. "Are you there?"

Instead of hearing Cole's voice, Zane butted in, sounding more concerned than before.

_Jay, you did not answer me. Your heart rate has picked up. What's wrong?_

"Cole hasn't come out, Zane. It's been _thirty_ minutes. I'm just worried, okay?"

_Jay, Cole is strong._

"Yes! He's strong, but you can't be _that_ strong all the time… can you?" Jay's head turned to the warehouse, his hands shaking.

Cole was strong. That wasn't a lie. He could grapple things both mentally and physically and sometimes look not even the least bit exhausted by it. He was the team's foundation. He was _his_ foundation.

But Jay knew even strong people could become weak with a snap of a wrist. He'd known Cole for years and it wasn't impossible for him to fall short.

"I can't even get hold of him through the communicator." Jay added.

_Perhaps when he went inside, the connection was cut off._

"I need to go in, Zane."

_Cole told you to stay out-_

Jay shook his shoulders, brows taught. "I don't care what Cole says, I'm going inside!"

_Jay-_

The blue ninja silenced his earpiece, and pulled his hood over his head, rushing to the front of the warehouse.

If he had remembered correctly, Cole climbed in through the roof, wanting to be as stealthy as possible without getting caught. So, Jay did just that. He climbed the ladder on the side of the building and stood on top of the roof, panning his eyes for a way inside.

There was a door that led to the staircase, but those would make his arrival too obvious.

He spotted a ledge on the side of the building and dropped down onto it softly, peering in through the window. His eyes frantically searched for Cole, who was nowhere to be seen, nor were the criminals they were supposed to catch.

Jay tilted open the window, slipping inside and landing on a stack of boxes. He used the rest of the boxes to hide behind as he moved around the warehouse for a better look.

Still no sign of Cole.

Jay drew in a sharp breath, jumping from behind one stack of boxes to another.

"Cole?" He whispered, loud enough for his friend to hear.

A hand touched his shoulder. "Jay!"

"Gah! Ah!"

The blue ninja jumped on his toes, regretfully losing his balance. His arms spun in circles in the air as he tried to keep himself from falling on his back, but that failed miserably. Still, had his eyes been open, he would have realized that Cole had caught him by the hand before Jay could fall back any further, pulling him close to his chest.

Jay held his breath, the blood rushing to his cheeks within seconds.

When he finally collected himself, he shoved Cole away from him. Though he didn't mean it to come off as forceful, he had the slightest feeling it did. Neither of them spoke of it.

Instead, Jay threw his arms up in the air. "Cole! You're okay!"

"Yeah? Didn't you get my message? I told you, it's just a group of kids playing hide-and-seek."

Jay blinked, dumbfounded.

Message? "No! I didn't get your message, _idiot_! The connection was probably cut off. Still! Why didn't you come back out?"

Cole rubbed the back of his neck anxiously.

All of the sudden, a boy about half Jay's size and younger than them came charging at Cole. The earth ninja skillfully dodged his hand, stepping to the side gracefully with ease.

"Ah, man, these kids are too slow."

Jay watched fearfully as Cole drowned himself in his own laughter. He put two and two together and his brain suddenly clicked. He poked Cole roughly in the center of his chest, frowning.

"Are you _playing_ with them?"

Cole hesitated, hiding his hands behind his back like a toddler who had gotten caught eating glue. His face showed the kind of awkward grin that always made Jay giggle.

"Maybe?"

* * *

**Rock**

"You didn't have to come with me, you know?"

Jay ruffled his eyebrows, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he kicked a rock. He didn't dare raise his head, as he struggled to keep his blush at bay.

Of course, he didn't need to go with Cole. Cole didn't even ask for anyone to come along. He just stood at the door, cleared his throat, and told all the ninja: "I'm going into the woods for a small walk."

In which, Jay just had to respond with: "I'll tag along with you!"

"Well, I thought it would be nice." Jay stopped walking when Cole sat down on a rock just alongside a river, taking the opportunity to stretch his legs. Jay shuffled beside a tree, kicking his foot up against it. "Though, my feet are beginning to hurt a little."

Cole pulled his hair back, out of his eyes, blinking a couple of times to shake the tiredness out of him. "Jay, we've only been walking for fifteen minutes."

Jay raised his hands in the air defensively and slid down the trunk of the tree, falling flat on his butt. He tipped his head down and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh of relief. "Ah, ah, ah. Fifteen minutes is still kinda long."

"Aw. Is fifteen minutes too long for you? Well in that case, you're doing _great_ , Sweetie. Let's take a break if your feet hurt."

At first, Jay was grinning from one ear to the other. That was until he caught the sarcasm in Cole's voice. He pointed an accusing finger at him furiously. "Don't patronize me!"

"Whatever you say, Zaptrap." With that, Cole kicked off his shoes and dipped both his feet into the river. A feeling of calm and soothing washed over him immediately as the waves splashed against his ankles softly. Cole smiled, wiggling his toes under the water.

"What's so funny?" Jay pried, standing up and wandering over to him.

When he spotted Cole standing in the river, his heart thumped.

He didn't know why, but it did.

Suddenly, Cole bent down and picked up a rock from the riverbed. He turned around to face Jay, his eyes wide as he pointed to the rounded stone in his hand.

"Jay! Look!"

The blue ninja squinted, kicking off his own shoes and splashing in the water to get closer to Cole.

"It's just a rock."

"Not just any rock." He noted the smoothness and the roundness of its appearance. Holding it between his two hands, Cole closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Cole was focusing on his element, and he snapped the rock in two, cutting it right through its center.

Jay's eyes widened at the sight of the tiny little crystals inside. Most of it white and reflective, like snow. Cole held out a hand, urging Jay to take the other half.

"It's a _geode_ , idiot." Cole laughed. "I've never actually seen one in real life before. They're hard to come by depending on where you look."

He continued to talk as Jay admired the stone in his hands. It looked so _ordinary_ on the outside.

Had Cole not been here, Jay would have simply assumed it was just a regular old rock shaped like an egg. But _wow_ was it pretty. And quite possibly his new favorite kind of rock. Not like he had one to begin with.

He dipped his finger inside, running it along the rough edges of the crystals.

A splash woke Jay from how mesmerized he had been by it and he looked up to find Cole squatting in the water, feeling the rocks.

"Ugh. Cole, you're getting us wet."

"Who cares? Come on! We should see if there are any more!"

* * *

**Talk**

Jay fell back onto his bed, arms out in a 'T' as he stared up at the ceiling.

For five days, Jay had been making up excuses to hang out with Cole. And each day, he felt himself fall a little bit more in love than he had intended to. That wasn't to say it wasn't his goal. But Jay wanted more than that.

He wanted to see if Cole returned the feelings.

Yet, everyday was the same. And he picked up on the same three things that he had always known to be true about Cole.

Number one: Cole was insanely oblivious.

Jay tried to get him to notice with the special delivery of his favorite cake. Unfortunately, to him, Cole appeared to be too captivated by the sweet treat to take into account the fact that Jay knew what his favorite cake was. Since he got it only so often.

Number two: Cole was stubborn.

Punching training dummies till they were broken while he waited for a sparring buddy. Diving headfirst into a mission. Alone and without any signal while he made Jay wait outside for half an hour, worried to death.

Number three: Cole was so stupidly in love with nature.

The walk in the woods and the geode. The stars at night. Jay had snuck up on the roof because he knew Cole was up there. He knew from the start that Cole had a secret place up on the roof. He hadn't gone to check his room because he was seeking comfort. He had gone to Cole's room to make sure that Cole wasn't there, but outside instead.

He sighed, turning onto his side to face the wall as he hugged a pillow.

"Cole's so dumb. Aha ha… But it's so hard to read him sometimes. Does he like me back? At all?" Jay squeezed his eyes shut, groaning. "Ugh, I'm so tired all of the sudden," he muttered.

"Maybe that's because you've been doing stuff nonstop all week."

The blue ninja tensed at the sound of the voice.

It was Cole.

Cole was in his room.

Had he heard that part about what he said earlier? About him? About Cole?

Jay gulped, swallowing his words and turning over to face him. His face half hidden beneath the pillow.

"What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up." Cole sat down at the end of the bed, by his head, looking down at him. "Are you bored or something? I couldn't help but notice that you've been hanging around me a lot lately."

Jay snorted. "Is that a bad thing? I thought you'd be more flattered than that."

Cole's bit the inside of his cheek, taken aback by Jay's comment as his cheeks flushed. "Hah… no, no it's just a little off-putting. For me." He met Jay's eyes as the master of lightning finally decided to sit up, sitting criss-cross on the bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cole asked him.

_Talk_.

Jay's eyes fell to the blanket, tasting the word in his mouth. _Talk_.

Maybe that was what he needed. To talk to him.

"I have to ask you something."

Cole raised an eyebrow, leaning forward. "Okay? What is it?"

Jay prepared himself with a couple of breaths, looking Cole dead in the eyes. "Do you like me?"

And the look Cole gave him was scarring. It was forever seared into his memories, something he would never be able to shake away again after all this. It made Jay regret everything. It made him want to take back everything he said and just pretend like nothing ever happened.

It was a questioning sort of look. Like Cole had to do a double mental take before he could give an answer. Like Cole had been caught in a web he couldn't get out of, because of himself.

"Of co-"

"Because I like you!" Jay blurted. He might as well finish it. Get it over with. "Like, I _like_ , like you." Jay could feel his entire body warming up now. It was suddenly so warm sitting this close to Cole.

"That's why I've been around you so much. You said you wanted to know, right? I just… wanted to see if you liked me back. But that was _terribly_ hard to figure out because you're a difficult person to crack. If you get what I mean. You hide your feelings so well. But, well, you also don't. It's so confusing!"

Jay started to panic, staring down at the bed sheets to keep him grounded and his words coherent.

"Can you even pick up when someone flirts with you? Can you pick up when _I'm_ flirting with you? Or the small things. Like your cake. Cole, seriously, are you that-"

Suddenly, Cole was kissing him.

It was out of nowhere. And it was _so_ unexpected that Jay had unintentionally shocked him backwards, sending bolts of lightning bouncing off the walls.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Jay's mouth gaped. He quickly stuffed his hands behind his back, smiling sheepishly.

"Um. You're the one who kissed me!" He got out, stumbling over each word.

Cole pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath, trying to keep his composure.

"Oh man. I ruined it, didn't I?" Jay ran his hands through his hair, groaning loudly when he spotted Cole's face. "Was that a kiss to tell me to shut up? Or was that an 'I like you too' kind of kiss?"

"Jay?"

"Darn it, I shocked you! I should be asking if you're okay." The blue ninja crawled over to Cole, searching his arms up and down. " _Are you okay?_ "

Cole grabbed Jay by the shoulders, pushing him back and looking him square in the eyes. "Jay. I'm fine."

"No you're not. You probably didn't like my little presence following you around all _week_ -"

" _Jay_."

" _What?_ "

This time, Cole leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. When he pulled away, the look in his eyes told Jay that every bit of that kiss was sincere and genuine. _Not_ fake.

"I like you too."

Jay's heart stopped. And suddenly his mouth went dry. "Wait. You do?"

"Jay, you're such an idiot." Cole ran his hand along Jay's cheek, caressing the side of his face gently. "I fell in love with you ever since I first heard you laugh. It's very contagious," he added as a joke.

"Well then it looks like we're both idiots." Jay corrected him, giggling.

Cole threw his head forward, a smirk crossing his face. "Yeah, I guess we both are. Let me kiss you again. But you better not shock me this time."

The other nodded, holding his hand over Cole's. He let out a shaky breath, this time, making sure to speak with confidence. "Go for it."

As Cole leaned in, Jay braced himself.

Mere inches away from Jay's lips, Cole spoke softly so that only Jay could hear. "But to be fair, you _were_ talking too much, motormouth. Someone had to shut you up."

And in fact, this newfound way of getting Jay to be quiet was something Cole was totally down for.

"Clever. But honest." Jay bluntly stated before their lips met once more.


End file.
